Yahoo’s Flickr revamp irks loyal users

Commentary: Mayer seeks Instagram, Tumblr crowd but upsets base

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — On the same day that it unveiled a mega-costly $1.1 billion deal to buy Tumblr, Yahoo Inc. also revamped its Flickr photo-sharing service in a really big — and possibly costly — way.

AFP/Getty Images

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer speaks about changes to Flickr in New York on May 20, 2013.

Yahoo
YHOO, -1.15%
made photos far more dominant on the home page of the service, got rid of a lot of white space and gave users one terabyte of storage each for free. That comes out to about 500,000 photos, based on the average resolution of a smartphone photo.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is clearly trying to make Flickr, which has 89 million registered users, appeal to the hipsters using Instagram and the youngsters using blogging website Tumblr and other more social photo sharing sites.

The changes will also get rid of the Flickr Pro option. Previously, professional users could upload an unlimited number of photos for $25 a year. Currently registered Pro users and those who let their subscriptions lapse, but who re-sign now, will get to keep the $25 service, as long as they keep their accounts current. But that service is now shut off to new users.

While it seems hard to imagine being able to fill up an entire terabyte of storage space (or 1,000 gigabytes), the limit — combined with the plan to eliminate Flickr Pro — riled up the service’s faithful. Plus, many are complaining about the new look of the site, where large, full-resolution photos dominate.

“We recognize that this is a lot of change and are listening to all of the community feedback that we’re getting,” a Yahoo spokeswoman said in an email. “Additionally, we’re actively measuring flickr.com so we can fine tune the site’s performance and continuously make improvements.”

In the Flickr community forum, a staffer wrote a post to help explain the changes. Within 24 hours there were over 17,000 comments and many of them were negative, asking for a way to restore the old version of the site, complaining about problems uploading photos under the revamped site, and many other issues.

“For those of you who have reported bugs or other usability concerns already, we’ll be working over the following days to take stock of ongoing issues and respond when possible,” wrote Flickr staffer Thea Lamkin in an update. “Finally, it should also go without saying that personal attacks against staff or other users will not be tolerated, and may prevent your ability to take part in discussion here in the Help Forum.”

The uproar among many loyal Flickr users shows the fine line that Yahoo’s Mayer faces, as she tries to make the company more relevant to a younger generation of Internet users. A previous upgrade to make Flickr more appealing to mobile users was, at least, apparently well received. On the company’s earnings conference call last month, Mayer told analysts that photo uploads on its mobile Flickr app were up 50% in the quarter.

But Mayer also made a statement at the press conference in New York on Monday that has been parsed and analyzed by Flickr users. On the same day as the Tumblr deal, Mayer hosted a press conference to announce a new Yahoo office in New York and to unveil the Flickr changes. Mayer was asked about what would happen to Flickr Pro accounts.

Addicted to Candy Crush?

(3:12)

If you’ve heard a low voice exclaim, “Delicious!” or “Tasty!” while you’re on mass transit or at a coffee shop, you know the popular smartphone game Candy Crush is being played. WSJ’s Monika Vosough explains why it’s Facebook’s number one game today.

Photographers on Flickr and elsewhere were outraged and have been venting for the past few days. A spokeswoman said Mayer was quoted out of context and referred to her tweets on the subject. On Wednesday, Mayer tweeted an apology to a few photographers, saying in one, “I worded my answer terribly. I really apologize for what it sounded like outside of the context and notion of Flickr Pro,” Mayer wrote.

That’s still not sitting well with everyone. “Well now photographers the world over have been overlooked, insulted, and denounced by Yahoo,” wrote Trell Burton, a professional photographer based in the United Kingdom, in a letter to Marissa Mayer posted in the community forum on Wednesday. “The very people who made Flickr famous have been stabbed in the back and told they do not exist by Marissa Mayar [sic].”

Mayer is hoping that the changes to the service, plus enticing more users with the free storage space, will draw a whole new group of users. But back-peddaling and by alienating the professionals who pay for the service, Yahoo could be doing more harm.

Whether these big moves will help or hinder Flickr as it fights the growing competition is too early to say. But it’s not an auspicious start.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use.
Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. Intraday data
delayed per exchange requirements. S&P/Dow Jones Indices (SM) from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All quotes are in local exchange time. Real time last sale data provided by NASDAQ. More
information on NASDAQ traded symbols and their current financial status. Intraday
data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. S&P/Dow Jones Indices (SM)
from Dow Jones & Company, Inc. SEHK intraday data is provided by SIX Financial Information and is
at least 60-minutes delayed. All quotes are in local exchange time.